Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I've been comparing it with others including Ivory II on Try-Sound, and I should have said, it sounds like the best of the best. Very powerful and responsive.

How could you possibly tell how responsive it is with the latency of Try-Sound? It has no half pedaling or repedaling. How are you going solve those problems? It's 2009 1st gen software suited for music production, not live playing. Anyway, you've been warned.

Yeah I was going to suggest getting a good, cheap piano like Vintage D or the Galaxy Steinway at the same time (for a small fraction of the price). Otherwise you won't actually know whether shelling out the big bucks was worth it or not--any VST will sound great compared with onboard sounds. Most people around here have the same feeling as Macy, I think, which is one reason very few of us own Vienna Imperial.

Make sure you check back after you have played it a bit and can review it. Vienna Imperial is not a very well-known VST here.

And yet, whenever it's mentioned, the half-pedal vigilantes rally to convince you it must be crap because, well, it's missing this one little feature.

I'd be really surprised if anyone came here to provide some review of the product (objective or otherwise) given the general hatred for the product by those who value feature specs above all else.

I don't mean to be too personal, but have you played any digital pianos or VSTs (IRL) without partial pedal? If not, you are really going out on a limb calling it a little or unimportant feature when many very experienced people in the forum feel that it is quite important indeed. Certainly you are on a limb when belittling people whose opinion and experience I know and respect (as well as my own).

I can imagine respecting that you don't feel the need for partial pedal, but before I do I'd like a little confidence that you have had at least one experience to back up that opinion. You are brand new here and have little reputation one way or the other. For all we know you could be a shill or someone who has never played before on any keyboard. I'm not saying you are, but when you speak as you have, you set off alarms.

Unfortunately, as many can testify, that try-sound site is by no means sufficient to shine a light on the playability or indeed desirability of a VST. It's better than nothing, but only just.

I've studied and played piano since 1978. I've owned a Steinway M, a Yamaha DC-5Pro and have used many soft pianos (including but not limited to Vienna Imperial). So yes, I have some experience in this arena.

There is no substitute for a good acoustic grand. But the general opinions I've seen expressed here about half pedal support are really quite overblown. It's useful at times but is completely unnecessary at other times. There is nothing wrong with Vienna Imperial for applications where half pedal is of limited or no use. If you want it, then as you say there are many low cost alternatives that include it. So owning two products may be the best for those who need it. But to completely diss any product for lack of that one feature is disingenuous.

I've been comparing it with others including Ivory II on Try-Sound, and I should have said, it sounds like the best of the best. Very powerful and responsive.

How could you possibly tell how responsive it is with the latency of Try-Sound? It has no half pedaling or repedaling. How are you going solve those problems? It's 2009 1st gen software suited for music production, not live playing. Anyway, you've been warned.

Hey not trying to pick a fight or cause a ruckus, was really asking a simple question about download speeds, and that's been solved.

To answer your question, I play Floyd Cramer style which involves something called a slip-note. There's different variations for executing the lick, but I can play this with my right hand and hear the responsiveness through Try-Sound. The one piano that has given me that little subtle "pop" when playing slip notes has been Vienna Imperial.

Now I'm not stuck on Vienna, I'm open to others, but the next best thing I tried was Ivory II American D, and it feels less "close" to the player. Vienna has the Close setting which makes you feel like the piano is RIGHT THERE in your face, something I like.

I tried turning off ambience on the Ivory II pianos, but they still sound just a tad "roomy" like I'm still picking up a slight room reverb. I feel like that diminishes the sound I'm trying to get with that slip note lick.

Interesting. There are several VST's around with a close setting you might be interested in. The first the pops into mind is the imperfect samples Fazioli (if you like Fazioli). Also expensive (edit: actually I just checked and it's not as pricey as I remember), but a while ago there was kind of a fad here where some people really liked it. IIRC it has several different positions that were separately recorded.

FWIW I think Macy was just making sure you are filled in, not being argumentative. We often see people coming and asking for a consensus view, disregarding it, and then being disappointed with the resulting decision, and it makes us want to be real clear before the purchase is made.

Personally I'm all for you buying it and letting us know how it works out for you. Be sure to try the pianos everyone around here likes well in real life at some point so you can compare/contrast based on live playing.

I've studied and played piano since 1978. I've owned a Steinway M, a Yamaha DC-5Pro and have used many soft pianos (including but not limited to Vienna Imperial). So yes, I have some experience in this arena.

There is no substitute for a good acoustic grand. But the general opinions I've seen expressed here about half pedal support are really quite overblown. It's useful at times but is completely unnecessary at other times. There is nothing wrong with Vienna Imperial for applications where half pedal is of limited or no use. If you want it, then as you say there are many low cost alternatives that include it. So owning two products may be the best for those who need it. But to completely diss any product for lack of that one feature is disingenuous.

It's not one feature, it's two features. Half pedaling is the least important of the two (IMO). You completely ignore the more important feature which is repedaling. How were you able to play your acoustic grand without repedaling? Did you release the damper pedal then always wait for the sound of all notes to die out before depressing the damper pedal again? I'm curious how you avoided that feature of your acoustic piano and why it is of limited or no use to you?

(Repedaling is such an important feature of modern software pianos that you can't even turn it off in Ivory II, while you can turn off half pedaling. Even my Yamaha CVP has repedaling.)

Interesting. There are several VST's around with a close setting you might be interested in. The first the pops into mind is the imperfect samples Fazioli (if you like Fazioli). Also expensive (edit: actually I just checked and it's not as pricey as I remember), but a while ago there was kind of a fad here where some people really liked it. IIRC it has several different positions that were separately recorded.

FWIW I think Macy was just making sure you are filled in, not being argumentative. We often see people coming and asking for a consensus view, disregarding it, and then being disappointed with the resulting decision, and it makes us want to be real clear before the purchase is made.

Personally I'm all for you buying it and letting us know how it works out for you. Be sure to try the pianos everyone around here likes well in real life at some point so you can compare/contrast based on live playing.

Couple things. First, I took your advice and checked out some Imperfect Samples Fazioli, as well as some of the others. But more importantly, it brought me to a comparison on youtube between the Fazioli, Piano in Blue,and Alicia's Keys.

Second, I took more advice, re-evaluated my intention of purchasing Vienna, and listened and played Vienna Imperial and Ivory American D again. However, after listening to Alicia Keys these two seemed fairly thin sounding to my ears.

The end result, I decided to take a gamble on Alicia Keys and so happy I did. I had $700 to spend on Vienna Imperial due to massive Ebaying, and now I got a phenomenal sounding piano with $600 left over. I couldn't be happier with this sound. It pops, it's woody, and has a huge warm bottom that I love. Easy to play and makes slip note style playing feel like butter.

My only complaint however is that I really miss soft pedal. That is so important in so many of Cramer's music. I guess it will teach me to play with a softer touch.

Well I'm glad you are loving it. I'm a fan of not spending too much on VST's and I'm glad you have been able to find a cheaper solution. You can always buy the expensive one later if you want. Or buy several cheaper ones. Good luck!

I'm seeing the Vienna Imperial on sweetwater for $110? Am I an idiot, is it the same software that originally went for $700?

I don't know if you are an idiot or not, but you have posted this 3 times today on different threads. No, it is not the same.

You may later think you are an idiot if you buy this piano for the crazy price it sells for when you could get the Vintage D or Ivory II American D (or even the True Keys American D) for less than $200.

I don't know if you are an idiot or not, but you have posted this 3 times today on different threads.

Macy, I posted three times as I am new to the forum and posts on this topic seemed retired/unvisited, and I wanted an answer. I didn't realize there were folks like yourself so in tune with postings. Now I know. Must be a setting I've yet to explore. Thanks for your reply.

Listened to a couple hours of these pianos now. I definitely prefer the sound of the Vienna Imperial above all others, but the realism of the Ivory II American D is ultimately more convincing and therefore more satisfying.